A STUDENT has sparked outrage and faces suspension for posting a smiling selfie of herself with a dead body to Instagram after an excursion to a university biology department.

The female high school student posed in front of the body with a big smile, snapping a picture with her smartphone as someone else lifts a sheet off the corpse, exposing the face and chest.

The selfie was snapped during a visit by anatomy students to the University of Alabama Birmingham's biology department, where they learned about the body donor program for medical research.

Mobile phones are banned for the tour, and sheets covering the bodies are not supposed to be removed, the university said.

The girl posted the shocking pic to Instagram and then removed it - but not before a fellow student took a screenshot. That student showed the photo to her older sister, who alerted school officials and local media.

The school is now considering how to discipline the girl, and has reached out to angry university officials, who slammed the photograph as disrespectful and disappointing.

"We are speaking to the University of Alabama Birmingham, they are understandably upset with this incident and we want to preserve our relationship with the university," Limestone County School Board spokesperson Karen Tucker told WHNT News 19.

"Therefore we are speaking to them and wanting to know how we can mend this process and keep our relationship with them, and we are in the process of deciding on the discipline that will occur."

The University of Alabama said the selfie was disrespectful and disappointing, and said they are reviewing procedures to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"Tours of our facilities to introduce students - primarily high school seniors - to the teaching and research we do, play and important role in educating future scientists and doctors," the University said in a statement.

"Our policies require discretion and respect in our human anatomy facilities. No phones are allowed, no photos are to be taken, and faces of cadavers are covered.

"A student was made explicitly aware of these policies and breached them. This kind of disrespect is unacceptable and very disappointing," the university said.